Upcoming High Elf Changes, With a grain of salt...

This was passed to me by a friend today, thought you guys would find it interesting:

"This is cut and pasted from Chris O' Saik's newsletter


Alright, I know I promised you 40k, but Harry summed up the High Elf rumors
so well, that I went ahead and posted it. The promised 40k rumors are
still at the bottom.

"High Elf release: November: Book and Army Box set.

THE BOOK : It is done and on its way to the printers. Written by Adam Troke
(I presume with input from the rest of the games developers).

Intrigue at court is gone.
Elves strike first. (Army rule).
Archers can fire in two ranks.
Special Characters include (There could be more but I have not heard it) :
Tyrion, Teclis, Eltharion and Alith Anar as Lords. (Tyrion, Teclis,
Eltharion have been there since the first book. Rick Priestly : 'leave none
of the old background behind'. Alith Anar : New model).
Korhil and Caradryan (Captain of the Phoenix Guard) as Heroes. (Mentioned
in the Nemesis Crown booklet).
There will be three other ‘vanilla’/generic Hero options. (So a new
Character type!)
There will be three types of/different Dragons in the book.
There will not be a unit of Drake riders. (Allesio : 'we will not make the
same mistake as we did with the pegasus knights)."

Elves strike first?

LAME.

Stupid fast elves...

I thought the same. What are they going to stand and shoot, then attack first?
Or is this just for second rounds of combat... it's still lame.

Good thing it is just a rumor now.

whays it lame? as it stand alves suck, and struggle to kill gobbos. thing is, if elves strike first, why dont dark elves and wood elves etc etc. spose they'll have to blame it on good old high elven training....

I have druchiis so it would be something good for the elfen race. But I don't see a DE amendment in the short term. So, LAME, LAME, LAME . Unless it is also given to DEs at the same time

At least it would justify the 11pt per model cost for their spearmen compared to the cheaper DE spearmen.

I don't think elves will all strike first, an entire army that strikes first would be broken, think of a unit of swordmasters, they would butcher stuff. I wouldn't be inclined to trust rumours for another few months yet.

Unless it applies to the first round against charging units it has no effect, 90% Elves strike first anyway, I highly doute that its an across the board always strike first with every unit, that would be pretty stupid. The rest sounds about right, but they better make some other changes to points etc otherwise HE will stay broken, and not broken over powered but broken 50% of units unplayable.

Just to clear up a point that Notlogic posted: the reason HE spearmen cost 3pts more than DE ones is that they get to fight in 3 ranks whereas DE fight in 2 ranks like normal spearmen.

Honestly some common sense should be used when dealing with rumours; if the new rule about HE striking first is true then it will only be for certain units, probably spearsmen, but definately not units of archers as they would be very unbalanced and would have to cost something close to 15 pts a piece- how stupid would it be if a unit of HE archers could stand and shoot at fliers/ fast cavalry then fight first to kill even more? theres absolutely no way they'll have this ability without a significant price increae (which would make HE even more fragile)

Dogs of war pikemen get to strike first when they are charged so it makes sense that HE spearmen could do the same under the same circumstances as they are very similar (ie they get to fight in more ranks than normal spears).

I don't think any elves suck. It would be lame IMHO because of all the ramifications an entire "strike first" army would have on the Warhammer world. Obviously, and already stated would be the archers standing and shooting, only to fight first. Other things come to mind would be any strength 7 characters(they may or may not have the ability to hit strength 7). If they do and had this rule, chariots would not fair so well... I could go on a bit more, but as was pointed out, this is a rumor as of now, and hopefully they have the common sense to make the new book balanced, whatever the changes may be.

Maybe they should make Phoenix Guard usable, now there is an idea!

I totally agree with your points. I do quite like the Phoenix guard models and fluff but for their points they are pretty darn rubbish; its just the fact that they are T3 and only have a 5+ save that does it (or rather doesnt) for me as any decent missile unit will pick them to pieces in only a few turns

High elves are going to strike first- b4 combat even starts, you`ll be THINKING about charging with your chariots, and your opponent will say,`"ok, thats 5 attacks for 3 ranks, plus 1 more for the champions, 16 attacks total..."

I seriously doubt it would be before the 3d3 (or more) impact hits.

What I heard was that they got always strike first rule.... but I kind of hope that it's a variation on this even though I will be buying a HE army when they come out.

Totally agree

Surely having them strike first even when charged is ridiculous, it removes a big tactical element, charge don't be charged, there must be some advantage to charging, in my opinion the always strike first will be only in subsequent rounds, not when charged. Impact hits are always first though ouroboris, even before guys with "strike first" magic weapons. Other than that not much else has been said, does anyone actually use/care about special characters?

Along the "always strike first" theme, for my next army I am going to make a Dogs of War army. Their pikemen can always strike first, fight in four ranks and get plus 1 strength when charged by monsters, cav. or chariots. Pretty cool huh? Great potential against everything, you'd never want to charge them in the front, that's for sure. However, with impact hits BRB says they are worked out "at the very beginning of the combat... before any model gets to attack." So that makes that clear even if you always strike first.

The problem is that you'd have to take a decent amount of shooting to make the pikes really work for you, as people would just dance round them or stand back- they only strike first when theyre charged if i remember correctly... I'd love to do a Dogs army as i've been in love with the Pikemen models and rules since i first saw them when they were released.

As to elves striking first in subsequent rounds there really wouldnt be much point as most elves will strike first anyway, unless one kind of elf attacks a different kind (HE vs DE for example) so it really wouldnt make a great deal of difference, i really dont thin theres any truth in this rumour at all really unless they just give it to the spearmen to make them more like pikemen.

Umm, I'm not so sure about heaps of shooting. Agreed, they are vulnerable with only heavy armour, and that they would work best with an army ready to take it to you, but a couple of cannons and a few crossbows would be more than enough to encourage the straglers.

Having talked with a few guys in GW its been implied that the strike first would only applie to spearmen, which makes sense as they cost about the same and fight in multiple ranks, pikes are still better because of the bonus against calavry, but it would go some way to justifying the cost of He Spears.

Lets see the spearmen strike first, 16 attacks, 10.7 hits, 5.35 wounds against T3 and 2.6 wounds against 4+ save or MAYBE 1 wound on a knight. I don't think I'd worry much as even our skellies would only be dealt 3 wounds a round, and with T4 you'd get 1-2 wounds through again not scary for an 11 point per model unit.

You Know, I am glad that the stupid intrigue at the court thing is gone! It never really affected me, but there was the possibility that my mage would be the general

I'm looking forward to the release of the new high elves! Mostly beacuase I play them myself, I think? I certainly don't hope that all the high elf units will be able to strike first, that would be way too powerful an ability. I don't see any problem with giving the rule to the high elven spearmen, as their spears is more like pikes really, and it won't ruin the game. Besides that they need something to justify their high point cost.

I doesn't seem like anyone have posted any pics of them yet (not on this site anyways), so here you go!

Pretty plastic toys. Very pretty and soo sooo damn much squeezed into that sprue.